Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1887-07-07
CASTE RULE IN INDIA.

is extant tradition among them that
certain Brahmin sages visited in the
dim long ago England, and there Gre
ated white men, whom they called
Gandanas, or God-fearing men, but
ultimately these sages became disgust
ed with the ancient Briton on account
of their keeping pariahs as servants.
The learned Brahmin who told me OF
this tradition failed, however, to inform
me who created the pariah, or human
being of low degree. So particular are
the Brahmins about the maintenance
of their caste that the richer of the
community only employ bereaved
Brahmin widows, or their poor rela-
tives, for the execution of their house.
hold duties, and it must be said that,
no matter how servile may be the po-
sition of Brahmin in a Brahmin
household, no insult is given, but the
servitor is held in as much considera-
ton as is the master. The lot of the
Hindoo widow is not happy one-for
the law prevents her from again enter
ing the marriage state, and therefore
she is often compelled to work for her
livelihood. The Brahminical law, so
arbitrary in other respects, is not the
less here Widows are compelled to
wear white, to always keep their heads
shaved and covered, but the dhoti form
of dress is preserved, and even the
doubtful pleasure of taking snuff is
withheld from them.
1t will be seen, from what l have
said, that the position of the Brahmin
woman, in South India, is enviable to
that of her sister in North India.
Though she is not regarded as an
equal, she is little better than a
chattel. The average Hindoo mind
can not receive a woman as human
being possessed of soul and sensibil-
ity. Though she influences the aspira-
tons of her children, shapes their
destinies, yet she is withheld from
sharing their triumphs or their pleas
ures. Feelings akin to pity arise in
the English breast, or rather indigna-
ton, as, when passing through the ma
tive villages, he sees, engaged in
severe toll, the women, whilst the
men, squatting on the ground before
their houses, enjoy in the cool of even
tide the songs of the wandering min
strel, or the latest marvel from the
lips of the professional story-teller.
1t is reported that the most cruel in
their treatment of the women are the
Iengars, who claim for themselves
more than ordinary attributes. The
European is to him no less an object
of contempt than pariah, and when
the Iengar talks with Griffin Gas a
newly-arrived Englishman in India is
called), he does not fail to show his
disdain, for fastidious Brahmins, when
they speak to a Sudra or European,
are accustomed to place their hand on
the stomach, and, catching the holy
thread, present the back of the hand
to the person addressed, and, at the
close of the conversation, by rotary
motion, they display the palm. To
those who choose to regard this is an
insult it is such.
The Brahmin is bundle of extraor-
binary contradictions. Witness him
buying load of wood from pariah.
He halls the unfortunate creature, who,
setting down his burden, edges away
whilst the Brahmin examins it. The
Brahmin then moves away. The pariah
approaches the wood, and with his
hand before his mouth, lest his breath
touch the person of the august pur-
chaser, he concludes the sale. No
pariah uses the public highway made
by British money and under British
supervision while noble Brahmin
passes. BrahminI youths are beset
from their birth with tedious restric-
tons; the dignity of their race and
their own dignity is theme which
never tires with their parents. Per-
1 haps their only luxury is that of taking
snuff, and in this even the law inter-
feres and lays down a certain age when
they may begin; to bachelor this
pleasure is prohibited; snuff-taking
can only begin with matrimony.
The Tamil Brahmins have peculiar
| ly poetic language, and though their
ideas are not always poetical, yet they
are generally picturesque. The insect
kingdom is the human world in dis
guise, and accordingly they call the
bee Brahmin from its selfish exclusive
ness and its dislike to insects other than
: bees; the wasp is the videgar, or priest;
the grasshopper and locust, soldiers,
from their destructive qualities; large
insect, being species of glow-worm,
cowherd or milkman; the mosquito
, and the flea household servants; the
bug a doctor; the butterfly a Brahmin
woman, and the horsefy dog. And
in conclusion, should any of my readers
/ ever desire the speedy departure of a
Brahmin from his house. have but to
say let him call into the room a dog
for to pure Brahmin dog and a fowl
is as much an adherence as hog to
an orthodox Hebrew or to faithful fol.
lowers of Mohammed. Cor. San Fran
cisco Csrossels.